BuccaneersFan.com • Player Spotlight • Tampa Bay No. 62
W.P. Rader — Professor Jam • Updated
Current official portrait: Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Center • Third NFL season
At the heart of the offensive line
Graham Barton
- Born
- June 1, 2002
- Hometown
- Brentwood, Tennessee
- Listed size
- 6 feet 5 inches • 314 pounds
- High school
- Ravenwood High School
- College
- Duke University • 2020–2023 seasons
- NFL Draft
- April 25, 2024 • Round 1 • Pick 26 • Tampa Bay
- Buccaneers
- 2024–present • No. 62
Profile sources: Buccaneers roster, Duke biography and official transactions. Brentwood is his listed hometown.
NFL figures stop after November 1, 2026 (Week 8), checked November 3; college figures cover his completed Duke career. Sources: NFL game log, Buccaneers biography and Duke record. See the NFL appearance-count note.
Before the pass leaves a quarterback’s hand or a running back finds daylight, the play begins with the center. Graham Barton brought Tampa Bay experience at both center and left tackle when the Buccaneers selected him in the first round of the 2024 draft. His assignment was to return to the middle and grow into the demands of an NFL offensive line. The Buccaneers’ draft assessment.
For the Krewe, No. 62 offers a rewarding place to watch the game. Follow the snap, his first steps and the space around the quarterback. Some of an offense’s most useful work happens before the ball reaches the player whose name appears beside the yardage.
2024 → 2025 → 2026
Three seasons, more than one assignment
2024 Earning the center job.
Drafted on April 25, Barton signed his four-year rookie contract, with a fifth-year team option, on June 13. He then competed with Robert Hainsey for the starting center job. Todd Bowles named him the starter on August 20, but Barton stressed that the work of earning that role continued each day. Transactions; rookie signing; the starting assignment.
2025 Answering a call at left tackle.
Barton opened his second season with three starts at left tackle, then returned to center in Week 4. His college experience at the edge of the line proved useful when Tampa needed him there. He played every offensive snap during the season, contributing through changes around him. The Buccaneers’ 2025 account.
2026 Refining the work in the middle.
Entering his third season, Barton emphasized strength and technique while preparing for coordinator Zac Robinson’s offense. Through Week 8, he had started all eight games. The season remained in progress, with another set of lessons to apply each week. His offseason priorities; 2026 game log.
April 20, 2026 • Preparing for year three
The preparation behind the snap
In the middle of the line
62
GRAHAM BARTON
Strength, technique and preparation.
The work begins before the snap.
Holding the pocket’s depth
In his April discussion with the club, Barton identified core strength and better technique as priorities. He wanted to improve his ability to hold the depth of the pocket, keeping the interior rush from pushing the line backward toward the quarterback. He had been training back home in Nashville and comparing his first two seasons to identify where progress remained possible. The official technique feature.
Barton also expressed eagerness to learn Robinson’s offense. His view was that the line’s athletic ability could support different approaches to the running game. For fans, those comments make preparation tangible: strength, positioning and learning how a new play fits with the men beside him.
Hear the job from field level. The club’s mic’d-up video follows Barton during Tampa Bay’s 30–19 victory over San Francisco in Week 6 of 2025. It offers another way to follow the center’s work within the offense. Watch the official 2025 video →
Competition and cooperation
A rookie could learn from his competition
During the 2024 competition, Barton and Hainsey shared first-team work, including alternating preseason drives. Barton publicly credited Hainsey’s maturity, leadership and willingness to help. Their relationship provides a useful glimpse of an offensive-line room: players can compete for an assignment while helping each other understand it. The club’s account of their work together.
Barton identified pass protection as a demanding part of the move from tackle back to center. Hands, feet, angles and recognizing the defender all required attention. That willingness to describe the work still ahead made his response to winning the job particularly revealing. He treated the announcement as another responsibility to fulfill.
NFL regular season • 2024–2026
The NFL record, season by season
Barton started every regular-season game in which he appeared through this update. The table follows that participation across his first three seasons. The 2026 row stops after Week 8; preseason and postseason games are excluded.
| Season | Team | G | GS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Tampa Bay | 16 | 16 |
| 2025 | Tampa Bay | 17 | 17 |
| 2026 — through Week 8 | Tampa Bay | 8 | 8 |
| NFL career through 2026 W8 | Tampa Bay | 41 | 41 |
G = games played; GS = games started; C = center; LT = left tackle. The 2025 position split is three starts at left tackle followed by 14 at center.
Source note, November 3: The annual player-summary table and career feed still list seven games and starts for 2026, and 40 for his career. All eight entries in the current game log show one appearance and one start. This page therefore uses eight for 2026 and 41 career regular-season starts.
2026 game-by-game participation • through Week 8
| Week | Date | Opponent | Tampa Bay result | G | GS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Sep. 13 | @ Cincinnati | L 27–33 | 1 | 1 |
| Week 2 | Sep. 20 | Cleveland | L 19–23 | 1 | 1 |
| Week 3 | Sep. 27 | Minnesota | L 16–23 | 1 | 1 |
| Week 4 | Oct. 4 | Green Bay | L 14–17 | 1 | 1 |
| Week 5 | Oct. 8 | @ Dallas | W 24–16 | 1 | 1 |
| Week 6 | Oct. 18 | Pittsburgh | L 19–26 (OT) | 1 | 1 |
| Week 7 | Oct. 25 | @ Carolina | W 43–13 | 1 | 1 |
| Week 8 | Nov. 1 | Atlanta | W 16–0 | 1 | 1 |
| Through Week 8 | 2026 | 8 games | 3–5 record | 8 | 8 |
Scores show Tampa Bay first; @ indicates an away game and OT means overtime. Each row records an appearance and a start.
Source: official Buccaneers game log, checked November 3. Tables scroll horizontally on small screens; keyboard users can focus a table region and use the arrow keys.
2024 NFL season • January 2025
A playoff start in his rookie season
Barton started at center when Tampa Bay hosted Washington on January 12, 2025. The Buccaneers lost 23–20 in the Wild Card round. Although the calendar had turned to January, the game belongs to the 2024 NFL season. Official postseason game record.
| NFL season | Game date | Round / opponent | Tampa Bay result | G | GS | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Jan. 12, 2025 | NFC Wild Card / Washington | L 20–23 | 1 | 1 | Center |
| NFL playoff career | Through 2025 | 1 appearance | — | 1 | 1 | Center |
This is his one NFL postseason appearance through the update and is separate from his 41 regular-season starts. Tampa Bay did not reach the 2025 postseason; the 2026 postseason had not begun.
Brentwood → Durham
Ravenwood roots and four years at Duke
Football grew from a broader sporting life
Barton grew up in Brentwood, outside Nashville, and played lacrosse before choosing football as his main high school sport. At Ravenwood, he played on both lines. His senior team went 13–2 and reached the 2019 Class 6A state championship game, and he earned All-State recognition. The Buccaneers’ high school account.
Center first, then the left edge
Injuries to veteran centers opened an opportunity for Barton during Duke’s 2020 season. He played six games and made five starts at center before moving to left tackle for the next three years. His completed college record included 40 appearances and 39 starts: five at center and 34 at left tackle. Buccaneers college summary; Duke’s season-by-season account.
- First-team All-ACC: 2022 and 2023.
- AFCA second-team All-America: 2023.
- CSC second-team Academic All-America: 2023, announced in January 2024.
Football honors: Duke biography. Academic recognition: Duke’s January 23, 2024 announcement.
Duke participation and school-reported snaps • 2020–2023
| Season | G | GS | Starting position | Duke-reported snaps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 6 | 5 | Center | 434 |
| 2021 | 12 | 12 | Left tackle | 810 |
| 2022 | 13 | 13 | Left tackle | 916 |
| 2023 | 9 | 9 | Left tackle | 505 |
| Duke career | 40 | 39 | 5 C / 34 LT starts | 2,665 |
Snap figures are those published by Duke and total 2,665 across four seasons. G = games played; GS = games started. Barton did not play in the 2023 Birmingham Bowl.
Source: Duke’s completed career biography. College totals are separate from the NFL tables.
Learning beyond the playbook
Public policy, sociology and practical experience
At Duke, Barton studied public policy, with a sociology minor and a certificate in markets and management. His Academic All-America recognition gives that classroom work its own place in the story. Duke’s account of his academic program.
During summer 2023, he interned in U.S. Senator Thom Tillis’s Raleigh office. That experience added a practical setting to his studies while he was still preparing for his final college football season. The Buccaneers’ profile feature.
November 19, 2024 • Moffitt Cancer Center
A rookie visit with time for patients and children
During his first NFL season, Barton joined eight other Buccaneers rookies for a visit to Moffitt Cancer Center. The group visited patients at Moffitt McKinley Hospital and its outpatient center, sharing team gifts. They then visited Moffitt’s Child Development Center, where the activities included sack races and children’s singalongs. Moffitt’s November 26 report on the visit.
It is a small, concrete part of his Tampa story: time away from the practice field spent with people in the community. The hospital’s own account preserves the occasion, including the lighter moments at the Child Development Center.
Follow the work in the middle
A good place to start watching
Barton’s path gives the Krewe several ways to appreciate an offensive lineman: the patience of learning a position, the versatility to help somewhere else and the preparation behind every assignment. On the next Buccaneers possession, start with No. 62. There is a whole sequence of football to follow before the ball leaves the pocket.
Sources & statistical notes
Updated November 3, 2026. NFL regular-season figures stop after November 1, Week 8. Postseason and college records have separate totals.
- Profile and arrival: Buccaneers roster, Duke biography, draft feature, transactions and rookie contract.
- NFL record: game log, career feed, 2024-season playoff game and 2025 standings.
- Preparation: the center competition and Hainsey’s help, 2026 technique priorities and 2025 mic’d-up video.
- Education and community: high school and internship, academic program and honor and Moffitt’s visit report.